by Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY Sports

by Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY Sports

TAMPA -- They most recently exited a major league diamond on terms far different than their own.

For Mariano Rivera, it was a long ride on a green cart that took him from the warning track of Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium into the visitor's clubhouse last May, the ligament charged with holding his right knee together shredded.

For Derek Jeter, it was a long hobble from his shortstop position at Yankee Stadium to the dugout, carried on the shoulders of his manager, Joe Girardi, and a trainer moments after his left ankle shattered while he was trying to make a play in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series in October.

It was no small matter, then, for the Yankees to welcome both of their cornerstones back to major league competition Saturday afternoon at Steinbrenner Field.

Certainly, their actions in this Grapefruit League game against the Atlanta Braves were perfunctory: Jeter, as the designated hitter, singled on the first pitch he saw and later grounded out. Rivera looked closer to regular season form, pitching a spotless relief inning and freezing two Braves on called third strikes.

But the simple movements of spring strike a different tone when Jeter, Rivera and the Yankees spent much of the past year pondering the notion of their athletic mortality.

"It was great to be on a mound again," Rivera said. "Wonderful."

The sight of No. 2 and No. 42 on a baseball diamond, receiving standing ovations from a capacity crowd at Steinbrenner Field, provided a large degree of comfort for the team.

"Yeah, there is," Girardi said, "because it's something we're used to seeing, them performing at a high level. To see Derek run OK and to see Mo do what he had to do, it's really positive for us."

The Yankees spent the morning celebrating Rivera; the 43-year-old closer confirmed in a news conference that the 2013 season, his 19th, will be his last.

They spent the afternoon pondering the last vestiges of a dynasty that produced five World Series championships, beginning in 1996.

Catcher Jorge Posada retired after the 2011 season. Left-hander Andy Pettitte, 40, retired once, is now in year two of a comeback, but figures to join Rivera in retirement after this year.

That leaves Jeter, who turns 38 in May, as the last man standing among the so-called Core Four.

He has a player option for 2014 and seemed to go out of his way to state he could not relate to Rivera's retirement decision, as if his own is many, many years away.

"It's great that he's come to peace with what he wants to do," Jeter said shortly after exiting Saturday's game. "And now he can enjoy the season. I think it's going to be a special year for him. I can't relate to it in terms of somebody announcing it's your last year, going through your last year. But I'm happy for him. Happy he's made this decision and it's the best one for him and his family."

This time next year, it will be Jeter most likely going it alone sans Rivera and Pettitte.

"We're like brothers," Jeter said. "We've been through pretty much anything you can be through on a baseball field. It'll be different when (Rivera) is gone, just like it was different when Andy was gone and came back and it was odd when Jorge was gone last year.

"We'll always be friends. Because we've been through so much."

More recently, their travails took place out of the spotlight, Rivera rehabbing after ACL surgery, Jeter laid up in a wheelchair for much of what he termed a miserable winter.

Less than a month ago, Jeter was still limited to running on a treadmill. He's yet to sprint full speed on the basepaths, though he did run out Saturday's ground ball "at 72%," he joked. He should play shortstop in a game sometime next week, though he proclaims there are no mental hurdles and no hesitation in his movements.

"My mind's always been at peace," he said. "When (a doctor) said my ankle was completely healed, really, what else is there to worry about, as opposed to just getting the rest of your body in shape?"

True to form, Jeter seemed to take some satisfaction in knowing Rivera's intentions to retire both in 2012 and 2013 long before the news media. He noted that Rivera had talked retirement for at least five years, but that he "knew he was serious this time."

Rivera seemed to have fun with his situation. He opened his morning news conference by saying he'd agreed to a two-year extension, then scanned the crowd quickly, gleefully noting that general manager Brian Cashman looked stunned by his departure from the script.

A couple of hours later, he entered the game, per usual, to Metallica's "Enter Sandman," then breezed through the Braves as if he'd never left.

His final season was supposed to be 2012. Everyone in the Yankees' inner circle -- Cashman, Girardi, Pettitte, Jeter and others -- knew it.

Rivera's right knee buckling in a batting-practice mishap changed his tune.

"I think all players really want to go out on their own term," Girardi says. "You do that in a sense that you decide to play as long as you play. It means a lot for any player to do that."

And so it was with much relish that Rivera breezed through his news conference and his inning of work, calling the day "overwhelming...but great."

He seems to realize there are no guarantees to his final season, save for the fact that he will do his best to savor every moment of it, a process that began Saturday.

"It's good to be back.," Rivera said. "Anytime you have a chance to be on the mound ... you have to enjoy."